CFL set to kick off second century of three-down football

A fan holds the Grey Cup for a photo during Calgary Stampeders' Fanfest at McMahon Stadium in Calgary, May 25, 2013. CFL teams across the country are getting set for training camp. (Jim Wells/QMI Agency)

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The first 100 years of the CFL are in the books, and it's time to kick off the next century of action.

The long off-season comes to an end this weekend with the start of training camps across the country. Teams have had six months to tinker with or blow up their rosters, all in an effort to put the best three-down squad on the wide field in 2013.

So there's no better time than right now to look back at the off-season that was and grade each team's moves. Here is a five-minute guide to who's in, who's out and how it will affect their season. A player's previous or new team is in parentheses.

Overview: The big news in Montreal was the coaching change, with Marc Trestman leaving for the Chicago Bears and long-time U.S. college coach Dan Hawkins taking over. There will be a transition period.

The Als needed to upgrade their defence, and the additions of Parker and Kuale are decent pieces. The pickup of Bruce was a slick move by GM Jim Popp, who kept all of his important free agents and extended other key players as well.

Overview: The Grey Cup champs still have Ricky Ray, who has settled in nicely with the Boatmen, so life is good.

The Yurichuk signing was a solid one, as he is one of those all-around Canadians who can do many jobs. The Mitchell acquisition was a risky move given his moodiness, but it could pay off if the coaching staff can get him to play at a top level.

The loss of McCullough to their rivals in Hamilton will hurt, as will Armstead's departure for the NFL.

Overview: It's all about the quarterback in Winnipeg, where the injury-prone Buck Pierce remains No. 1. GM Joe Mack jettisoned backups Alex Brink and Joey Elliott, and replaced them with former NFLer Max Hall and Chase Clement.

That means, along with returnee Justin Goltz, the three quarterbacks behind Pierce have thrown a total of 14 passes in the CFL. That could be trouble if Pierce goes down, so Mack didn't exactly fix the quarterback problem like he said he would.

Other than that, Mack stuck to his script. The only player with bona fide CFL experience he added was safety Cauchy Muamba. He didn't feel the need to put much experienced talent on the roster, which has led to problems in the past.

Overview: Ticats brass punted George Cortez after only one season and brought in Austin to save the day, just as he did in Saskatchewan in 2007. Austin brought his broom with him from Cornell University and cleaned house.

The defence needed a major overhaul especially, and while the additions of Williams, Patrick, Bowman and Bulcke are nice, none of them will come in and save the day. McCollough was the best acquisition on defence.

Also of note was Hamilton's inability to sign first overall draft pick Linden Gaydosh before the draft, which allowed him to bolt to the NFL a week later. There is also the Chris Williams fiasco hanging over the club heading into camp.

Overview: It was an odd off-season on the West Coast, where GM Wally Buono once again got rid of some aging veterans -- most notably the CFL's career leading receiver in Geroy Simon -- but he also lost some young talent. Gone are backup quarterback Mike Reilly, starting safety Cauchy Muamba and special teamer James Yurichuk.

Getting Arceneaux to return to the Lions' den after a failed NFL stint was a huge coup, but there wasn't much else for fans to get excited about. The offensive line remains a question mark.

Buono did re-sign the league's best O lineman in Jovan Olafioye and brought linebacker Solomon Elimimian back to the fold, and he also extended the contracts of about half the team. So that brings the grade up to average.

Overview: The only players GM John Hufnagel probably wanted to keep were Bulcke and McCoy, but he went out and got Legare on draft day to back up Corey Mace on the defensive line anyway.

Other than that, it was another quiet off-season in Cowtown, where they lock up their players early and often. That means they don't have to get into off-season bidding wars, nor do they lose much talent.

In addition, seven of the 11 players they either re-signed or extended are non-imports. Their priorities are straight.

Overview: It's quite clear the Riders are focusing on playing in the Grey Cup in their own park this November, because the team has been built for this year. Since that appears to be the case, the Simon trade was a great move and adding a winner like Foley won't hurt.

Anderson is a risky pickup because of his attitude and his acrimonious past with new teammate Weston Dressler, but he can play.

The defensive end positions are question marks going into the season, but it was a solid off-season for GM Brendan Taman.

Overview: Like Kent Austin did in Hamilton, Hervey came in and made sweeping changes to the roster. The only difference is a fair amount of talent went out the door but not a lot of proven players came back through it.

A lot of CFL talent evaluators believe Reilly is the real deal, but we won't know until he plays. Hervey gets bonus points for orchestrating that trade with B.C. for Reilly before he hit free agency.

Willis is a wild card as well. He has the talent, but the effort and discipline isn't always there.

The coaching staff is basically new under head man Kavis Reed, so it looks like there will be a significant transition period in the City of Champions.

CFL set to kick off second century of three-down football

The first 100 years of the CFL are in the books, and it's time to kick off the next century of action.

The long off-season comes to an end this weekend with the start of training camps across the country. Teams have had six months to tinker with or blow up their rosters, all in an effort to put the best three-down squad on the wide field in 2013.

So there's no better time than right now to look back at the off-season that was and grade each team's moves. Here is a five-minute guide to who's in, who's out and how it will affect their season.